365 T-shirts - the reasoning

This blog should be sub-titled: a journal of my life in geek.

I get my geek on with things about which I am geeky: comic books, Baseball, Ultimate, science fiction, my favorite bands, books I have read and loved, and Jungian psychology to name some of the most frequently traversed subjects.

I began this project simply as a way to count my T-shirts. I own a lot of T-shirts. But how many do I have? Do I have 365? We shall find out.

When I started this blog, I thought about how each T-shirt means something to me. I bought it for a reason, after all. I set myself the task to post an entry about a new T-shirt every day as a way to simply write something every day, a warm up for writing fiction, which is my passion. Writing is like exercise. Warm ups are good for exercise. But after completing a month of blogging about T-shirts, I have learned that this blog serves as a journal; it documents my life in geek, sort of a tour of my interests in pop culture. The blog serves as a tool for self-inventory, for assessment and analysis of self and the origins of self, for stepping through the process of individuation in catalogues, lists, and ranks.

The blog also made me aware that I have some serious gaps in my T-shirt ownership, and I am in the process of collecting some new T-shirts for several of the great popular culture icons that I truly love. Stay tuned.

I was also a bit surprised that people checked out my blog and continue to check it, read it, and even comment on it. I am very appreciative of this readership. Please feel free to share your thoughts in my comments section. I will respond.

Also, please note that I have moved the original introductory text to the side bar. And now, I present to you the most recent entry of 365 T-shirts: a journal of my life in geek. Thank you for reading.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

I am front loading the pictures today because I am very tempted to just let the pictures carry the content today. But no, I am a writer after all. So I write.

AN ASIDE ABOUT A FILM

I feel I should mention that I watched Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen last night with my wife. Typical Woody. A rehash of various themes he's explored before with some new elements. I liked it better than Purple Rose of Cairo. Woody has smartly transitioned to using actors, in this case Owen Wilson, who does a great Woody-esque performance, in roles he used to take himself.

Just had to get that bit out there. I liked Midnight in Paris. It's part of my WATCH ALL THE WOODY ALLEN MOVIES project. I refuse to let recent or even far past news events (smear campaigns) lessen my appreciation for Woody Allen's work as a filmmaker.

TODAY'S T-shirt

The Peanuts comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz is for me, like is for many of you, a treasure, a companion, a dear love, a favorite, a familiar friend, and an amazing, daily installment in the lives of these beloved characters.

Surely, the art and the comics can speak for themselves. I wish I had time to scour the entire history of the Peanuts strip, thousands and thousands of strips, to select the very best to share here. Instead, I share a selection gleaned from the Internet and some pictures of me with my shirt and my dog-eared Peanuts books.

I can also say, quite proudly, that I now have a beagle as a member of my family, my own personal Snoopy as I discussed in the entry for

I love this picture of the Satchel boo as a puppy fitting on the dash of my wife's car.

I was already pre-disposed to love this beagle because of how much I love Snoopy and always have. My family knows about this affection and have given me many Snoopy themed cards over the years, Snoopy toys, books and comics, and surely, I had a Snoopy birthday cake. I also had (and I still have it, though it's not in use) a Snoopy bed spread.

I am amazed by the output of Peanuts comics over the years, exactly 50 years, as commemorated by this shirt. Schulz did not live much past his retirement, which he announced in late 1999 after learning of his fatal colon cancer. He died in February of 2000. His last strip (shown at top and the Sunday version farther below) was published the next day.

The legacy Schulz has left behind is staggering. In his lifetime, he produced 17, 897 strips total. Fantagraphics Books is publishing a set of COMPLETE PEANUTS, totaling 25 volumes, the last of which will be published in 2016.

I, too, miss Mr. Peppers. :-)

Thank you Charles M. Schulz. You have been missed every day since your passing though your characters live on.

Check out Sense of Doubt blog

Hi. Thanks for reading. I closed out daily transmission on March 21st, day 365 of my T-shirt blog-tastic extravaganza spectacular. Currently, I am enjoying a hiatus of total non-transmission or publication for an as yet undetermined period of time. As of the posting of this note (and it's no April Fool's) on 1404.01, I have some unfinished T-shirt blog entries, which will be posted over the next two weeks. After some more blog vacation hiatus, I will resume T-shirt posts on a regular basis, also as yet to be determined (weekly? Twice monthly?) to finish blogging about all the T-shirts that were not featured in the blog year. MEANWHILE, I am posting weekly and somewhat at random over on SENSE OF DOUBT BLOG.

Over there, you will find THE WEEKLY COMIC LIST, the features of occasional T-SHIRTS I AM WEARING THIS WEEK, book

reviews, comic book reviews, and other popular culture nonsense as I have been for a year now but all will go up at SENSE OF DOUBT BLOG and some will direct back here to 365 T-SHIRTS. Ultimately, I will begin Internet publication of my fiction, primarily the comic book satire episodic story called POP! among other projects. So, in summary, 365 T-SHIRTS will continue though intermittently. SENSE OF DOUBT BLOG will host my main blog presence and fiction writing as well as links to any T-shirt posts shared here. I hope you will continue to follow me in my journey as a writer and a content provider. Thank you for your kind attention and time you have spent with me on this and/or any other day this year. I am humbled and blessed by your readership. - chris tower, blogger, originated 1404.01

SiJ - Daguérose

The Catalanian Tapes

ZENИTH

Original Introductory Text

Maybe it's narcissism. I have been wanting to increase my blog presence, and I wanted something that was easy to update, much like my frequent "Facebookery." Hence, 365 T-Shirts. I have a lot of T-Shirts. Some may say that I am somewhat compulsive about buying T-Shirts, owning them, wearing them. Earlier this year (as the blog would have been better started on January 1st), I wondered if I had 365 different T-Shirts. I don't know. Now, obviously, I could count them, but where is the fun in that? Better to post a picture of one per day for an entire year to test whether or not I run out of shirts before 365 days have passed. This hobby means taking and displaying a lot of pictures of me, which is not a prospect that I find thrilling. But the pride of embracing my geeky side and my obvious egotism make for a fine marriage in what I hope will be seen as a whimsical blog for occasional viewing, if not even a regular check in for many of my friends new and old. Thus, I present 365 T-shirts, launched on 1303.22 or as others call it March 22, 2013. Now watch as I fail to keep it going for even a week...